The Pirate Bay enters the web top 100

Online file-sharer becomes the 97th most-visited site

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It’s been the bane of Hollywood since its inception in 2004, but the self-billed ‘world’s largest BitTorrent tracker’ has finally hit the big time by entering the list of the 100 most-visited websites on the net, finding itself at number 97 according to web information company Alexa.

The Swedish peer-to-peer network, renowned for its copious amounts of copyright-infringed material ­– said to be around 1.2 million torrents ­– has ballooned from 3 million people using the site in 2006 to nearly 12 million. The number of unique visitors a month, however, is said to be around 25 million.

A Pirate’s life

The Pirate Bay sneaking into the web’s top-100 is sure to infuriate the MPAA who, in 2006, tried to shut the site down by raiding its base in Stockholm.

The raid managed to shut down the service, but for just three days. When The Pirate Bay went live again, it garnered doubled the amount of traffic due to the publicity the raid garnered.